All right, let's begin our service
opening our Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. Lord willing, this weekend they're
having a Bible conference at Cottageville, West Virginia,
Millsite Baptist Church. Paul Mahan, Don Fortner and I
will be preaching there. I covet your prayers for that
meeting. Pastor Gabe Stoniker will be
here, Lord willing, Sunday morning. I know you look forward to that.
Now at 1 Peter 4, we'll begin our reading in verse 12. Beloved,
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice
inasmuch as you're partakers of Christ's sufferings, that
when his glory should be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding
joy. If you be reproached for the
name of Christ, happy are you, for the spirit of glory and of
God resteth upon you. On their part, he's evil spoken
of, but on your part, he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as
a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody
in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffers a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.
For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
And if it first began at us, What shall the end be of them
that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely
be saved, where should the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore,
let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the
keeping of their souls to him and well-doing as unto a faithful
creator. We'll end our reading there.
If you would, please turn to page 118 in your red hymnal. when I survey the wondrous cross. On which the Prince of Glory
died. My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that
charm me most I sacrifice them to His blood See from His head,
His hands, His feet Sorrow and love flow me Did e'er such love
and sorrow meet, O'er thorns scumble so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature
mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my soul, my life, my all. All right, open your Bibles now
to Psalm 105. Psalm 105. We'll begin our reading in verse nine.
Which covenant he made with Abraham and his oath unto Isaac, and
confirm the same unto Jacob for a law. and to Israel for an everlasting
covenant. Saying unto thee, will I give
the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. When they were
but a few men in number, yea, very few, and strangers in it.
When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom
to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea,
he reproved kings for their sakes. Saying, touch not mine anointed,
and do my prophets no harm. Moreover, he called for a famine
upon the land. He break the whole staff of bread.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant,
whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron. Until the
time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. The
king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and
let him go free. He made him Lord of his house
and ruler of all his substance. to bind his princes at his pleasure,
and teach his senators wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt,
and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And he increased his
people greatly, and made them stronger than their enemies.
He turned their heart to hate his people, and to deal subtly
with his servants. Then he sent Moses his servant,
and Aaron whom he had chosen." And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow in your holy,
majestic presence, daring only come before you in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ, pleading his obedience as our only righteousness,
pleading his blood that cleanses us from all sin, the only blood
that could make us accepted in thy sight. Father, we've gathered
here together this evening to worship you. I pray that you
would send your spirit upon us and enable us to do that. To
worship you in spirit and in truth. Enable us to forget about
the cares and responsibilities of this life. Father, for this
hour, speak to our hearts. Open up your word to us. Enable
us to see Christ. Enable us to leave here this
evening rejoicing in Christ our Savior. Cause your word to go
forth in the power of your spirit, not in the power of the human
intellect and ability, but in the power of your spirit to reach
the hearts of your people, to reveal Christ, to comfort and
encourage and strengthen the hearts of your people. Get glory
to your name, we pray. And Father, we thank you for
this place that you've raised up, a place where we can meet
together in peace and in unity. And Father, I pray that you would
preserve it and protect it, that you give us the wisdom and the
grace to carefully preserve this great gift that you've given
us, a place where the gospel is preached. Make us faithful
to serve our generation and preaching it and supporting it. Father,
we pray for your people that you brought into the time of
trouble and trial. This has all come according to
your eternal will and purpose. And we're thankful to know that
these things don't happen randomly, but by your direct will and purpose. Give us the grace to find peace
and rest and comfort in knowing that you're the one who overrules
everything. And when it could be thy will,
Father, deliver your people from sickness and heartache and the
different trials and troubles that we're going through. Father,
deliver your people, and until you do, comfort their hearts
with your presence. And Father, we pray for our country
at this time, that you would have mercy upon us. How we beg
that you not leave us to our own devices, but Father, preserve
and protect this country for your great namesake. Give our
leaders wisdom and understanding to lead us aright, we pray. We
beg this of you. Wisdom that we so desperately
need does not come naturally. Father, give it, we pray, to
our leaders, that they might lead this country aright. And
all these things we ask in that name which is above every name,
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his glory, we pray,
and give thanks. Amen. If you would now, please turn
to page 17, Come Thou Fount. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues of awe. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come. And I hope by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Alright, let's open our Bibles
again now to Psalm 105. I've titled the message this evening,
God's Mysterious Providence. You remember we began looking
at this psalm last week and the psalmist began by telling us
to give thanks unto the Lord. Give thanks for the deeds that
God has done and give thanks for God's character. And remember,
we looked at this, that God's deeds, what He does, His works,
are controlled by His character. Everything God does is holy and
good and right. Simply because God does it because
that's all He can do. Something that's holy and good
and right. And we need to be reminded of
that throughout our lives. Believers especially need to
be reminded of that. Because the life of a believer
takes many, many different turns. Often, our life will turn on
a dime. We go through many ups and downs,
and when we look back over it, it seems like maybe we've been
through more valleys than mountaintops, doesn't it? Now, without a doubt,
we enjoy sunny days of joy and blessing. But the believer will
endure many dark days of sorrow and fear and doubt and worry. And God is doing right. What he's doing is holy and right
in our days of joy. And God's deeds are just as holy,
just as right, just as good in our days of sorrow and fear and
doubt and worry as they are in the days of what we call blessing. And remember this, when the Lord
brings dark, hard, difficult days our way, He's not doing
something to us. God, for his children, is doing
something for us. And God does it that way to teach
us something about him, to teach us something about his glory,
something of his sufficiency that we could not learn unless
he brought us into the valley. When we do not understand what
the Lord is doing, you rest assured that He is moving in what seems
to us to be a mysterious way, but He's moving to bring about
the glory of our Savior and to bring about something good for
His people. And the verses in our text this
evening give us three illustrations of that that I want to show you.
The first one is Jacob. Verse 8 of Psalm 105 says, He
hath remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded
to a thousand generations, which covenant He made with Abraham.
and his oath unto Isaac, and confirm the same unto Jacob for
a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying unto thee, will
I give the land of Canaan to lot of your inheritance, when
they are but a few men in number, yea, very few, and strangers
in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom
to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea,
he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, touch not mine anointed,
and do my prophets no harm. Now, the Lord gave a promise,
a covenant to Abraham that he would indeed not go childless. Eliezer would not be his heir,
but that Abraham would have a son and his seed, God promised him,
would be more than the stars of the sky. He said, Abraham,
count the stars if you can. Your seed will be more than that.
Your children will be more than that. And the Lord went on and
promised Abraham, your descendants are going to possess this whole
land of Canaan. It'll all be theirs. And the
Lord confirmed that promise to Abraham's son, Isaac. Now Abraham
and Isaac never saw any of their descendants own and rule any
part of that land. They were nomads in it, living
in tents, never owning any of it, going from place to place
to place. the travels of Abraham, the different kings and people
that he met. He was doing that because he was a nomad traveling
around the land God had promised to give his descendants someday.
And then old Jacob came along and the Lord promised he confirmed
that same promise to Jacob. And just like his father and
his grandfather, Jacob never saw any of his children own or
rule any part of that land that God had promised to give them.
Yet Abraham and Isaac and Jacob believed God. They never saw
God's purpose and God's promise come to pass, but they still
believed God. Hebrews chapter 11 tells us they
died in faith. They died believing God, even
though they'd never personally seen the earthly promise fulfilled. Well, why didn't they? Why didn't
they see God's promise fulfilled? Why did the Lord delay so long
before he fulfilled his promise? It wasn't because the Lord was
doing something to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was he? No, the Lord
was doing something for them, for his glory. It may be more
accurate for us to say that the Lord delayed fulfilling that
promise he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for all of God's people. He delayed for us, for our sake,
for His glory, giving them something better than a physical land.
The Lord delayed fulfilling His promise to give us a picture
of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is a work of
God. It's all the work of God and
God's going to get the glory for it. He's going to do it in
such a way none of us can take any credit for it. Same thing's
true in this picture. Suppose the Lord just let Jacob
stay in that land. He just stayed there in the land
of Canaan. Eventually, Jacob's descendants down there in Egypt
grew to over 3 million people. Well, why didn't the Lord just
let him grow to 3 million people there in the land of Canaan?
And they could just gradually take it over. You know why he
didn't do that? I'm pretty sure I know the answer
to this one. Because you know what Jacob and his children would
have done? They would have taken credit. for taking that land
with me. They said, we took that land
because we're so strong. That's why we took the land. It wouldn't
seem like miraculous, miraculous work that God would give that
land to people of this group, three million people in the land.
They would have taken credit for it. They would have said,
we're strong enough. Or you know Jacob, Jacob would
have said, I was a shrewd enough businessman to get all this land
for pennies on the dollar. And we got it all because I was
such a shrewd businessman. And the Lord wouldn't have it
that way. He's not going to share any of His glory in giving this
land to His people with anybody. The Lord sent them down to Egypt
where they were slaves for 400 years. And once somebody, a nation,
has been a slave for 400 years, generations of people have been
slaves. They've got no might. They've
got no ability. They've got no military might.
They've got no initiative on their own. All they know to do
is do what they're told. They've got no strength. They've
got no might. They've got no independence.
And if the Lord gives that people the land by His power, not theirs,
He's going to get all the glory in doing it. That's why the Lord
delayed. See, the Lord did something for
His people when He made them slaves in Egypt. He wasn't doing
something to them. He was doing something for them
and for us who believe today. By making them slaves all that
time, He showed them their own weakness. He showed them their
own dependence upon Him. And He showed them His power. See, if they had took the land
by their power, they never would have seen His power. But when
they were made powerless, then the Lord displayed His power
in giving them the land. just exactly like he promised
he would, without any of their help. And the Lord shows you
and me that, that he's going to fulfill his promise to his
people by his power, by his might, in his time, without any of our
help. The Lord's taught us something
very, very, very valuable. He's taught us to depend upon
him. He's taught us to wait upon him because he's faithful to
his promise. He's faithful to his people.
Well, the same thing's true about salvation. Have you ever wondered
why did the Lord let Adam fall in the garden? God knew he was
going to do it. God could have stopped him. He
got the power to stop it, right? He knew everything's going to
happen before it happened. Why didn't God stop Adam from sinning
in the garden? And then we wouldn't be in this
mess. Well, if the Lord had stopped Adam from eating that fruit,
Adam had children. People kept having children all
the way down to us today. And that tree of the knowledge
of good and evil was still somewhere. And we didn't eat of it. We'd
take credit for our righteousness, wouldn't we? We'd take credit
for our own obedience. But God did something great for
his people when God allowed Adam to fall. He did something great
for his people by allowing Adam to fall, allowing to Him to have
all of His descendants be dead in sin, become slaves to sin. God blessed His people in doing
that. And you think, wait a minute, God allowed sin to come into
the world and that's a blessing? Yes, it is. Because if He didn't
allow sin to come into the world, you and I would never see the
Savior. See, God did something for His people. And now, look
at the message that we have to preach and believe. A message
of God's grace and mercy to his people that don't deserve it.
We wouldn't have that message if we just were righteous because
we obeyed that one rule, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. That's a blessing. Now we've seen God's power to
save his people through the sacrifice of his son. Now we've seen God's
greatest glory, sovereign mercy to sinners. See, when God allowed
Adam to fall, He did something for His people, didn't He? He
gave them a blessing. Same thing is true of Jacob.
If the Lord just left Jacob in the land and let his descendants
grow strong enough to possess the land, if the Lord had never
allowed Jacob to think his son Joseph was dead, if He never
allowed him to go through all that time mourning and his favorite
son Joseph had just stayed right up underneath his wing the whole
time, And Jacob turned all of his possessions over to Joseph
when it was time. If the Lord allowed that to happen,
if he hadn't allowed Joseph to go down there into Egypt and
let Jacob think he was dead, Jacob never would have known
the blessing of receiving his son from the dead, receiving
life from the dead. And then to find out not only
was Joseph alive, he's the man down there ruling all of Egypt
anyway. He never would have had that blessing. if God had allowed
him to keep all of his family right there. And if the Lord
had never allowed us to die in Adam, we'd never know the joy,
the blessing of being regenerated in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
you take that same principle and you apply it to every dark
day the Lord ever brings to you. The Lord's not doing something
to you. Some way, somehow that we cannot
see, And truth be told, a way that we may never see, God's
doing something glorious here to bring out the glory of the
Savior and to bring a blessing to his people. And the darkness,
the suffering and pain of the trial is still real. That's not
going to take away the suffering of it. But the greatest glory
of the Lord can only be seen from the darkness. Light is always
seen best in the darkness. And that's why God delays in
bringing his purposes to pass. So his people see something of
his glory that we couldn't not see if we weren't in the darkness.
All right, the second example is Joseph, verse 16. Moreover,
he called for a famine upon the land. He break the whole staff
of bread. Nobody could grow bread, wheat
anywhere. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold
for a servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid
in iron. Until the time that his word
came, the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed
him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made
him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance, to bind
his princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom. Israel,
his father, also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land
of Ham. Now here's Joseph. You all know
the story of Joseph. Joseph was Jacob's favorite son. He made no bones about the fact,
this one's my favorite. That caused hard feelings, didn't
it? And one day, Joseph had a dream,
and he told this dream to his family. He had a dream that his
brothers and his father and his mother would one day all come
and bow down to him. Oh, that made him mad. Oh, his
brothers were so angry. His father rebuked him. He said,
y'all not be telling this story now. But Jacob and Joseph both
had a pretty good idea. That dream was from the Lord.
That wasn't just a random dream. That dream was from the Lord.
This dream is going to come true. But Joseph's brothers didn't
know that. Oh, they hated him. And Joseph's brothers, one day,
sold him into slavery. And they went home and convinced
their father, Jacob, a wild animal had killed their brother, his
favorite son. And you know what happened. Joseph sold into slavery,
was sold to a man named Potiphar, a powerful, influential man in
Egypt. And Joseph rose to a high authority
over all of Potiphar's house. Potiphar didn't know anything
about any of his investments, anything about anything going
on in his house. He trusted Joseph so completely, he was in charge
of it all. And Joseph thought, well, you know, I'm a slave,
but now I've risen to a comfortable position. I've made a life for
myself. And Potiphar's wife falsely accused Joseph, and he was thrown
in the dungeon to rot. Now, the story in Genesis tells
us that Joseph was in prison for more than two years. Pretty
much all tells us he was in prison for those two years. and he met
the baker and the butler and the dreams, but it doesn't really
tell us anything about those two years. The psalmist here
tells us something Moses didn't tell us over in Genesis. While
he was in prison, and no surprise, I would imagine, they hurt Joseph's
feet with fetters. They laid him in irons. How long
he laid there in those irons, unable to move, I do not know. I'm pretty sure Potiphar was
real mad and he intended for him to suffer. It wouldn't surprise
me. But they did more than hurt his
body with fetters. The marginal reading says at
this time Joseph's soul came into iron. His soul came into
iron. Moses tells us nothing about
the heart, the soul sufferings of Joseph as he was there in
that dungeon. But it's not surprising to find
out what happened is it? His heart, his soul suffered
at all that time when he was in that prison. And of course
it did. I mean, he was innocent of the
charges. He didn't deserve to be there.
He didn't deserve to be suffering like this. And you know, Joseph
wondered, why is this happening to me? Why is God doing this
to me? What's happening here? But then
eventually, Joseph prospered in the prison too. And that jailer
did the same thing Potiphar did. He put Joseph in charge of about
all the prison. But Joseph was still a prisoner
now. He still suffered. And he spent more than two years
wondering, why is this happening? Now this story just takes a couple
pages in our Bible. It doesn't take long to read
through. This was more than two years, two years, Joseph suffered
like this, not knowing. Is there going to be an end to
this time in prison? I don't know if he received a
life sentence or he's just going to stay there till Potiphar figured
he got a pound of flesh. I don't know. But he had no clue
how long he was going to be there. He thought, I might be here till
I die. He had no idea if his suffering would ever end. Been there? Tough business, isn't
it? He had no idea. And then suddenly,
I mean in an afternoon, it was over. Just in a blink of an eye,
Joseph went from the dungeon to second in command in Egypt. See, there's a famine coming.
And Joseph was the only one who knew it was coming. Joseph was
the only one who knew what to do to save the lives of millions
of people, to keep them from starving to death. Joseph woke
up that morning in the dungeon. And by that afternoon, he wasn't
a servant anymore. He's a king. He's not a prisoner
anymore. He's a king. And he got authority. I mean, he's got authority. The
second most powerful man in all of the world. He only answered
to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh pretty much gave
Joseph a free hand. People come to Pharaoh for bread.
He said, boys, don't talk to me. You go to Joseph. You go
to Joseph. If you want bread, you're going
to have to go to Joseph and beg him for it. He's the only one
that's got it. It's his to give. Now, this was
a time of great trial, great trial and suffering that ended
in a blessing for Joseph, didn't it? But you know what? In the
end, Joseph's not the one they got the greatest blessing from
this trial. You and I are. That's right,
we are. The primary reason God put Joseph
through all of this was not really for Joseph's sake, it was for
our sake. So we'd have a picture of Christ
our Savior in all of his glory. Yes, there was a time the Son
of God Not just the favorite son, the only begotten son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered humiliation. He sold
himself under the sin of his people, under the sin debt of
his people. And he suffered all the humiliation,
all the pain, all the death of the cross. He endured all that
because he's the only one who could save his people from their
sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was the only one who could give his
people life out of Adam's death. And he suffered all of that willingly
for his people. But now, now, that time of suffering
is over. That time of humiliation is over. Now he rules. He's always been
king. The Lord Jesus is God. He was
never not God. He was never not everything that
God is. He was never the omnipotent.
He was never not the ruler. He was never not king. But he
appeared for a time in humiliation, didn't he? He don't appear that
way anymore. Now he appears as what he is,
king of kings and Lord of lords. And if we're going to see him,
we're going to see him in all of his glory. Kind of like Joseph's
brothers. When Joseph revealed himself
to his brothers, he revealed himself to them in all of his
glory. And he told them, you go back
home, tell my father about all my glory in Egypt. That's how
he revealed himself to his brothers. And they never could have seen
him that way if he hadn't suffered the humiliation first. See that? The same is true of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Yes, there was a time he was
a babe in a manger. but no more. And don't bother
trying to look for him there. That babe in the manger can't
save anybody. He's got to start there, but the babe in the manger
can't save anybody. Besides that, he's not a baby
anymore. He's king. He's not a sacrifice on a cross
anymore. Now, he was for a while, but
no more. Now, he's Lord and Savior. And if you want life, you're
going to have to go to him to beg. He's the only one who's
got it. It's his to give. If you want
it, go to him. Now, that's the primary instruction
and the primary comfort for God's people in this story of Joseph.
It's a picture of Christ, a picture of our Savior humiliated himself
to bring himself to glory and the salvation of his people.
But there's also comfort for the trials of God's children
that they go through this life here, too. Now if the Lord has been able,
He's been pleased to set you free from death because of your
sin, because He crucified Christ as your substitute. If He's done
that, I mean, think of that. If Almighty God has set you free
from death to your sin, because of your sin, because He slew
Christ as your substitute, do you reckon He's got the power? He's got the love? He cares enough
to set you free from the different trials and troubles that come
your way in this life? Which, by the way, don't come
to you by accident. They come to you because He sent
them to you to do something for you. You reckon He's got the
power to set you free from those things? Well, of course He does. Of course He does. Then you just
keep waiting on Him. You just keep looking to Him.
Our Lord's able to say today as He was in Joseph's day. because
he never changes. Now you trust him and you wait.
He's got the power to deliver you. He's got the love and compassion
to deliver you. If the Lord was able to set Joseph
free from a prison when everybody forgot about him down there in
that dungeon, you reckon he can deliver you from heartache? You
reckon he can deliver you from suffering and trials of this
life? Well, of course he can. Of course he can. Then you keep
waiting on him. Keep looking to Him and waiting
on Him to do what's right and what's best. Because whatever
He does will be right and will be best. And until the time that
the Lord is pleased to deliver from whatever trial it is that
you're going through, don't just seek to be delivered from the
trial. Now, that would be nice, wouldn't
it? I mean, whenever we're in a trial, whatever it is that's
causing us pain and heartache and discomfort, Oh, what a relief
it is when that's taken away. But that's not the greatest blessing
God has for us in trial. The greatest blessing is not
that he relieves the pain and the suffering. The greatest blessing
God has for us in trial is that he's going to teach us more of
him. He's going to teach us something about him that we didn't know
before. He's going to teach us another
facet of his grace. another facet of his glory, another
facet of his goodness, another facet of his faithfulness that
we did not see before. Joseph's brothers and his father,
they knew Joseph, didn't they? Nobody knew Joseph like they
did. Oh, but what a blessing it was for them to come to Egypt
and see Joseph like they never saw him before, as king. The one who, when he revealed
himself to them, He burst out in tears at their
fear. And he said, I'm not gonna hurt
you. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm gonna
bless you. I'm gonna take care of you and
your little ones. I'm gonna give you the best of
Egypt. And when their father died and
they were afraid, oh, Joseph's gonna get us now. He'd just been
doing this out of respect for our father. Now that our father's
gone, he's gonna get us. And he said, no, don't you worry. And he said the same thing he
told him in the first place. I'm going to take care of you.
I'm going to bless you. Bless your little ones. Because
Joseph was faithful. They saw Joseph in a whole new
light, didn't they? And that's what God does for
his people. He reveals himself to his people in a whole new
light. Yes, we know God's got the power
to deliver us. Yes. But oh, to see him do it. That's something different, isn't
it? Yes, we know God has the power to comfort the hearts of
His people. We know that. Those are easy words to say.
Everybody knows that. Oh, but when He comforts my heart,
when I think I cannot do this, I cannot go through this, and
He comforts my heart. We learned something, didn't
we? Precious. We know God saves His people
by His grace and He'll never cast them out. But when after all God's done
for us, and we find ourselves acting so shamefully and thinking
so shamefully, and we make the mistake of thinking God's like
us and thinking God's going to cast me off now. And he comes
to us and just like he did Abraham, he renews his covenant. He renews
his promise. And he shows us his mercy and
his grace really is everlasting. We learn something of his faithfulness.
that we couldn't have learned otherwise. So you may think that
the path that God has chosen for you is a path of darkness
and pain and suffering that will never end. But one way or another,
it's got an end. And the end is glorious. The
path that God's people tread without question are going to
go through many dark and stormy and painful places. The Lord
promised us that in this world you shall have tribulation, but
tell you where that path's going to end up. I don't know where
all it's going to go between here and there, but I know it ends there.
At the foot of his throne, where there is glory unimaginable. And then Time for tears is over. The time for fears and heartache
and sorrow is over. And all that there will be is
joy and peace with Christ. That's where it's going to end
up. That's where it's going to end up. All right, the third
example is Israel, the nation Israel, verse 24. And he increased
his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.
He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtly with
his servants. He sent Moses, his servant, and
Aaron, whom he had chosen. Now you remember this promise.
Israel kept hanging on to this promise. Moses knew about it. His mother told him about it.
He knew there was a deliverer coming. Moses knew that. And
he knew Israel was going to take the land of Canaan. Moses knew
that. And Israel kept, he wasn't the only one, his mother wasn't
the only one who knew that promise. They all knew that. And they've
been hanging on to this for generations. God had promised to give them
that land. And I bet old Israel, Jacob,
remember God changed his name to Israel. I bet old Israel,
he was so happy he heard his son Joseph was alive, ruling
down there in Egypt. But as they packed up and started
going, Israel had to wonder. He looked around, shook his head, He thought, why
am I leaving this place? God promised to give me this
place. My children, my grandchildren, my descendants, God promised
to, why am I leaving this place? How are they ever gonna come
back and have all this? He didn't know, did he? Why would
God do such a thing? And then, after Joseph died,
everything went so well down there in Egypt, for the children
of Israel, Joseph did give them the best of the land. But after
Joseph died, there arose a Pharaoh that knew not Joseph. And oh,
he hated those Israelites. They were more and stronger than
the Egyptians. They're going to take over our
country. So they made them slaves. And when the taskmasters made
their life so hard, Israel had to wonder, why is God doing this? Why is God allowing this to go
on? Why is He allowing our suffering
to last forever? Generations have lived and died
as slaves, never having received God's promise of that land. And
they had to wonder when life was so incredibly difficult,
has God forgotten His promise? Has He? Like I said earlier,
God's going to do it this way. so that he gets all of the glory
in giving that land to the people that he promised. See, if God
gives that land to a people who have been slaves, it's obvious. God's the one who gave him that
land. They couldn't have done it by themselves. God's the one
that gave it to them, so he gets all the glory in doing it. And
remember, when it came time for them to go over and to take the
land, to cross over, and there stood Jericho, what did Rahab
tell those spies? Oh, we heard about your God.
We've heard about your God. She, she was already new. She
already knew to give the credit and glory to this for God. God's
the one doing this. We've heard about him. And the Lord did it just that
way, made his people suffer that nation suffer so long to give
something even better to us. When Israel went in and took
that land of promise, What a day. I mean, wow, just how special
that was. And I know it's land flowing
with milk and honey, and I've never been there, but I've seen
pictures of it. As far as I'm concerned, you can have it. I
mean, you can have it. I want nothing to do with it.
You can have it. But boy, that was something for them, wasn't
it? But the Lord's given his people something far better than
that hunk of desert over there. I mean, he's given far better.
He's given us a picture here of how God delivers his church. He's given us a picture of his
church and tribe. We're no different than Israel.
God's church is going to suffer. They're going to suffer in this,
in this earth. We're in a place where people
hate this gospel. They'll put up with any religion,
no matter how far fetched and ridiculous it is. except free
grace. The only one they can't stand.
I mean, you can do anything you want. You eat your children.
Fine. But you can't preach free grace.
You can't believe that. And it's going to oppress and
afflict God's church. But when that happens, you mark
this down. All throughout history, God's
church has always grown stronger in time of affliction. The more
the world tries to stamp it out, the stronger the church becomes.
That happened to Israel in Egypt. The harder the Egyptians treated
Israel, the stronger Israel became. So when we go through hard trials,
you remember this now, the Lord's not doing something to us, not
at all. He's doing something for us,
for His church to reveal more of His glory and to bring about
good to His people. The Lord brought Israel in Egypt. He brought them so low. that the only thing they could
do is groan. That's all they could do was
groan. They had no hope left. They couldn't even put their
agony into words anymore. They just groaned. And the Lord
heard their groanings. And then and only then did He
send Moses. Moses and Aaron come to deliver
His people. And when all hope was gone, we'll
get into more of this next week, but when all of this was gone,
all hope was gone, then Moses could tell Israel, now stand
still. God's brought us to this place.
Now you stand still and you see the salvation of the Lord this
day. This is the last you will ever see of your enemy. Stand
still. You're going to see something
glorious. Now you see the picture there, don't you? Christ saving
His people from their sin. I'll tell you the same thing
Moses did. Stand still. Now just stand still. And see
the salvation of your soul in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now just
be still. Don't think there's anything
you can contribute to this thing. Just be still. And see salvation
complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Jesus did it all. He paid
it all. All the debt I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow, not
me and him together. He washed it white as snow with
his precious blood. And the same thing is true in
our trials too. In the worst of our trials, when
Lord brings us same place he brought Israel of old, where
all we can do is groan. I mean, you just can't even put
it into words anymore. You just be still. Just be still. I'm the world's worst at thinking
kind of solution to this. And if that doesn't work, I got
a plan B. If that don't work, this will work out. I got like
Joyce, Joyce, the same thing. She told me that. And she said
not one time ever has Lord used any of my ideas. Not one. Me either, Joyce. Not one. Then
let's just be still. And you wait to see the Lord
move to deliver his people. Because one way or another, He's
going to do it now. One way or another. He may allow the king to throw
us in that burning fiery furnace, and the fire might kill us, but
one way or another, we're delivered from that king. Now I'm telling
you, one way or another, we're going to be delivered. And that's
the blessing in this trial. The blessing of the trial is
not getting out and being delivered from the trial. The blessing
of the trial is seeing God's glory, seeing His love and His
compassion and His power that He puts forth to save His people. That's our comfort. Now, that
don't mean the trial is still not going to hurt. No, it's going
to hurt. It's going to be painful. It's going to be hard. But it's
the only way we'll see God's glory in it. And when one more
time, the Lord teaches us by trial that Christ is really all
I need. And then, you know what I'll
say? Oh, Lord bless. To see again, really, he's all
I need. The Lord's blessed me. That's
what he does for his people in a time of trial. I hope that'll
be a help, an encouragement to you. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we're so humbled
at reading of your mysterious providence for your people. how
you rule all things well for your glory and for the good of
your people. Father, we're humbled that you
would do such a thing for such a people as we are, such an undeserving
people as we are. Father, how we thank you for
salvation that's full and free in our Lord Jesus Christ. that all of the sin of all of
your people is gone under his sacrifice. Father, how we thank
you. And after such a blessing, how
could we ask you for more? But you've told us, bring our
troubles and our burdens and lay them at your feet. And how
thankful we are to know that you'll handle the light burdens
too. fleshly trials and troubles and heartaches. Father, we pray
that you would deliver your people and that you would enable us
to see your glory, enable us to see the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ in our day. That will satisfy and bless the
hearts of your people to such time as you're pleased to make
us satisfied when we awaken your likeness. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. that we pray and give thanks.
Amen. Alright, Sean. If you would please stand and
turn to page 466. Christ liveth in me. Once far from God and dead in
sin No light my heart could see But in God's Word the light I
found Now Christ liveth in me Christ liveth in me Christ liveth
in me. O what a salvation this, that Christ
liveth in me! As rays of light from yonder
sun, the flowers of earth set free. So life and light and love
came forth from Christ living in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. The salvation is that Christ
liveth in me, As lives the flower within the seed, As in the cone
the tree. So praise the God of truth and
grace, His Spirit dwelleth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. What a salvation this, that Christ
liveth in me! With longing all my heart is
filled, that like Him I may be. As on the wondrous thought I
dwell, that Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. But our salvation is that Christ
liveth in us.